Corn Maze

The annual Hagerstown Corn Maze will open Saturday at Celebration Farm, 17638 Garden View Road in Maugansville. The maze will be open from Saturday through Sunday, Oct. 28. It will be open Monday, Sept. 3, from noon to 6 p.m. for Labor Day. The regular hours are Friday from 5 to 10 p.m., Saturdays from noon to 10 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. The corn maze is open other days by appointment for groups. Admission charges are $6 for adults and teens, and $3 for children ages 5 to 12. Children ages 4 and younger are admitted free.

It was tough work navigating the intricate paths and oversized corn stalks that towered over 8-year-old Sean Scott as he made his way through a dinosaur-themed corn maze Saturday. Sean, his 6-year-old brother Noah, aunt Holly Hallett and grandmother Becky Chilcote of Mercersburg worked up quite a sweat after getting lost in the maze for nearly an hour. As the family enjoyed refreshments, Chilcote said despite their misadventure the family was having a great time. “I think Sean and I got stuck in the belly of the dinosaur,” Chilcote said with a chuckle.

The public is invited to the Corn Maze at Cearfoss, a 3-acre maze in a standing cornfield on the grounds of Tri-State Fellowship in Hagerstown. The maze is open weekends until Oct. 19. Saturday hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday hours are 2 to 6 p.m. Admission costs $4 per person and free for children 4 years and younger. Pumpkins, apples, mums and corn stalks will be available for sale and there will be supplies for children to make scarecrows. For more information, call the church at 301-790-1774 or visit www.tsfevents.

THURMONT, Md. -This September, Brookfield Farms marks not only the opening of pumpkin season but also the third anniversary since Mary Jane Roop, heard she was cancer free. This is the third year the Roop family has hosted a "Corn Maze for the Cure. " Opening weekend for the pumpkin patch is Saturday, Sept. 27, and Sunday, Sept. 28. Admission costs $5; $2.50 for ages 12 and younger. In honor of the family's friends who will be walking in the Susan G. Koman Breast Cancer 3-Day event in Washington, D.C., the Roops will donate 100 percent of the proceeds from their corn maze opening weekend to the event.

katec@herald-mail.com Get lost. And have a good time doing it. For the fourth year in a row, Renfrew Institute for Cultural and Environmental Studies in Waynesboro, Pa., has cut a corn maze. "Maze of the Rings," which opens Saturday challenge visitors who enter to find their way out weekends through Saturday, Oct. 18. The approach to this year's maze was substantially different from that of years past, says "Maze Master" Garrett Blanchet, a family physician in practice in Waynesboro and a Renfrew Institute board member.

MERCERSBURG, Pa. -- The Mercersburg Area Chamber of Commerce will host its 30th annual Mercersburg Townfest on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. "This year's event will be bigger than ever," said Liz Martin, Townfest committee chairwoman. Organizers are expecting 120 art, jewelry, craft and food vendors to line East and West Seminary Street. Kids' Corner performances will be presented throughout the day. A food court will be set up on the Square. Other events will include the Mercersburg First United Methodist Church Fall Fest, Mercersburg Veterinary Pet Fun Fest, Stoner's corn maze and Long Acres Alpaca Farm open house.

SMITHSBURG -- Five-year-old Tyler Remsburg is running down the path, dwarfed by the walls of cornstalks to his right and left. His grandmother, Smithsburg-area resident Denise Cavender, jogs behind. "We have to go the other way," he calls back to Grandma. Tyler, of Hagerstown, had scouted ahead as the pair tries to find their way through the corn maze at Misty Meadow Farm. They are trying to find a series of fake cornstalks at which await a hole-punch to mark their map. The pair disappear around a bend so soon that the only sounds are crickets, cornstalks rustling in the breeze and cows mooing from the Herbst family's dairy operation nearby.

There are three mazes to choose from at Celebration Farm at 17638 Garden View Road north of Hagerstown, and proceeds benefit local faith-based nonprofit organizations. The corn maze is open Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. and Monday from noon to 6 p.m. Regular maze hours are Fridays from 5 to 10 p.m., Saturdays from noon to 10 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. through October. The cost is $6 for adults and $3 for ages 5 to 12. Admission is free for children 4 and younger. Wagon rentals cost $5. For more information, go to www.hagerstowncornmaze.org .

Astronomically speaking, summer's end comes with the autumnal equinox on Sept. 22, but in many people's minds, it ends with the Labor Day weekend's last round of picnics and pool visits. Monday was still very summer-like, with the air muggy from a drenching Sunday night rain, mostly sunny skies and temperatures creeping to about 90 degrees in the early afternoon. “Good weather for pools. Bad weather for corn mazes,” said Clarence Horst, who was hosting both at Celebration Farm on Garden View Road near Hagerstown.

There are three mazes to choose from at Celebration Farm at 17638 Garden View Road north of Hagerstown, and proceeds benefit local faith-based nonprofit organizations. The corn maze is open Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. and Monday from noon to 6 p.m. Regular maze hours are Fridays from 5 to 10 p.m., Saturdays from noon to 10 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. through October. The cost is $6 for adults and $3 for ages 5 to 12. Admission is free for children 4 and younger. Wagon rentals cost $5. For more information, go to www.hagerstowncornmaze.org .

Pumpkin Art Appreciation Day Pumpkin and gourd art demonstrations, 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. After 8 a.m., the first 150 children visiting the market will receive a free pumpkin, which can be decorated at the market. Trick or treating at participating vendors from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday. City Farmers Market, 25 W. Church St., Hagerstown. Call 301-739-8577, ext. 183, or go to www.hagerstownmarket.org . Fall Fest The festival will include a bake table of homemade goodies, garden items, crafts and 10 vendors.

1. Everybody loves a parade Alsatia Mummers Parade will be at 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27. The route begins at North Potomac Street through South Potomac Street, downtown Hagerstown. Features marching bands, floats and costumed mummers. Seating is available, go to www.mdtheatre.org/community-events.php or call 301-739-2044. 2. Time to party A Halloween party for children ages 12 and younger will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26, at Fort Ritchie Community Center, 14421 Lake Royer Drive, Cascade.

It was tough work navigating the intricate paths and oversized corn stalks that towered over 8-year-old Sean Scott as he made his way through a dinosaur-themed corn maze Saturday. Sean, his 6-year-old brother Noah, aunt Holly Hallett and grandmother Becky Chilcote of Mercersburg worked up quite a sweat after getting lost in the maze for nearly an hour. As the family enjoyed refreshments, Chilcote said despite their misadventure the family was having a great time. “I think Sean and I got stuck in the belly of the dinosaur,” Chilcote said with a chuckle.

“Where are you?” Charlae Matthews called to her family. Surrounded by tall zig-zagging rows of corn stalks, the 12-year-old had lost sight of her parents and siblings. Just a few moments later, she discovered them a short but winding distance away. “I thought they were going the same way I was, but then they turned around,” Charlae said after they had all made their way back to a clearing. “She thinks she is Magellan,” her father, Larry Pitts, teased. Larry Pitts and his wife, Jennifer, of Hagerstown took Charlae, Larry Pitts, 9, and Jane't Pitts, 7, to the opening day of this year's Hagerstown Corn Maze on Saturday.

The annual Hagerstown Corn Maze will open Saturday at Celebration Farm, 17638 Garden View Road in Maugansville. The maze will be open from Saturday through Sunday, Oct. 28. It will be open Monday, Sept. 3, from noon to 6 p.m. for Labor Day. The regular hours are Friday from 5 to 10 p.m., Saturdays from noon to 10 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. The corn maze is open other days by appointment for groups. Admission charges are $6 for adults and teens, and $3 for children ages 5 to 12. Children ages 4 and younger are admitted free.

About five years ago, farmer David Herbst and his family had a big decision to make. With two of his four children - married with kids of their own - wanting to continue the family business of operating Misty Meadow Farm on the outskirts of Smithsburg, they either needed to drastically increase their dairy production or undertake more custom-crop farming to support everyone. “We needed to go to 600 cows if we wanted to support these other families,” Herbst said, saying the idea was met with great resistance by his daughter, who handles most of the milking of their 160 cows.

The air has changed and there is a bit of a chill now, especially in the evening. This is a sure sign fall is here and with it harvest, the time when farmers glean their fields for the season's return and lamp posts and porches don corn stalks and pumpkins. At this point in the year, farmers will be harvesting corn and soybeans. Most of the areas dairy farmers have already filled their silos with corn silage and are joining their neighbors in shelling the remainder of the corn as grain.